Women Drivers in Touring Cars: Sweden

Sandra Oscarsson

Jessica Bäckman now has her own post.

Caroline Bender - former karter who graduated to cars quite early, at the age of 17. She competed for two seasons in the Junior Touring Car Championship in 2007 and 2008, driving a Citroen C2 both times. In 2007, she was unplaced in the championship. In 2008, she was also unplaced, after a part-season with rather a lot of non-finishes. Her best finish was 21st, at Knutstorp. She does not appear to have raced since then. She was racing alongside her brother, Alexander Bender.

Nina Dahlin - raced in Sweden between 2005 and 2008. She began in the Renault Junior Cup, aged just fifteen, driving a Renault 5. She finished third in her second season in 2006, winning twice. The following year, she switched to a Clio, entering some rounds of the Junior Cup, and the Swedish Fyndbörsen Cup, where she managed another win. In 2008, she drove in the JTCC in a Peugeot 206, but only did some of the rounds, with no podium finishes. She does not appear to have raced since then, and her blog is no longer being updated. 

Angelica (Minna) Haraldsson - raced in Sweden between 2005 and 2008. She began racing a week after receiving her driving license, although she was unable to reach the pedals and struggled to drive her racing car. She raced again in 2006, although only in a few races. In 2007, she put together a deal to race in the JTCC with the GAPS team, in a Ford Fiesta. She was still very inexperienced, and although her lap times improved dramatically, she did not score points. Half way through 2008, the team folded, leaving Angelica without support or sponsorship. She sold her car in 2009. Since then, she has remained involved in motorsport through marshalling, driving course cars, and competition management.

Caroline Jansson - first raced in 2002, driving a Volvo. By 2003, she was scoring top ten finishes, and in 2004, she did the whole Volvo S60 Challenge, finishing thirteenth. After that, she appears to have returned to international watersports competition for Sweden, apart from two guest spots in the 2009 Ginetta G20 Cup. She is the daughter of Nettan Lindgren, who is her manager.

Elisabeth Nilsson - did two seasons of the Swedish touring car championship under Super Touring rules, driving a Ford Mondeo. During her first season, she was on the pace, with a best finish of second, at Karlskoga, and another fourth place at Knutstorp. Her finishing record, however, let her down, as she recorded four DNFs out of nine races. This dropped her down to eighth overall. In 1997, she came back in the same car, but with a different team. Reliability really affected her season, and she only started six of the ten races, finishing three. Her best result was fourth, at Mantorp Park, and she was twelfth overall. Previously, she won the Opel Lady Cup in 1994, and seems to have started her career through the Swedish women racing drivers’ club.

Sandra Oscarsson - raced in Sweden and Germany in the 2000s, before retiring from motorsport very young. Her first full season was in 2008, when she raced a SEAT Leon in the JTCC touring car championship in Sweden, aged 17. She did not score any points. The following year, she went to Germany to race in the DTM-supporting Castrol ADAC Volkswagen Polo Cup, after being chosen by her team. She was 22nd overall. The same year as her JTCC run, she took part in endurance racing in Sweden in the SLC championship, winning one race at Knutstorp in a diesel SEAT Ibiza. She did another big endurance race in 2009, the Dubai 24 Hours, driving a Volkswagen Golf with Per Oscarsson. In 2013, she seems to have come out of retirement briefly for the SLC, with Per and Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky, but it is not clear whether she got to start a race. Despite not actively racing, she still remains involved in motor racing, as a journalist and as a karting instructor. In 2014, she made some guest appearances in the Swedish Thunder Cars championship.

Therese (Tezz) Svensson - raced in Sweden and Denmark in the 2000s. She began in the JTCC in Sweden in 2005, driving a Ford Fiesta for her family’s TS Motorsport team. She carried on in the same car and the same championship in 2006, and was thirteenth overall this time. In 2008, she joined the Techprint AB team, and improved her finishing position to twelfth, still in the Fiesta. The same year, she made two guest appearances in the Danish Clio Cup, scoring a couple of points. Therese had aimed for the Swedish Touring Car Championship, but seems not to have competed since 2008.  

(Image from http://www.teknikensvarld.se/2008/11/28/6006/fler-svenskar-till-tysk-racing/)